The tables in this release are available in an XLS
spreadsheet and the entire release is available in PDF
format.This release is issued jointly with the Bureau of Census and is made
available on both the Census and the BEA Web sites; to visit the Census
site, click
here.

United States Department of
COMMERCE NEWS
Washington, D.C. 20230
ECONOMICS
AND
STATISTICS
ADMINISTRATION
------------
U.S. Census Bureau
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
CB-04-91
BEA-04-28
FT-900 (04)
June 14, 2004
For information on goods contact:
Haydn R. Mearkle (301) 763-2246 U.S. Census Bureau
Nick Orsini (301) 763-2311 U.S. Census Bureau
For information on services contact:
Technical: Christopher Bach (202) 606-9545 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Media: Ralph Stewart (202) 606-9690 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN GOODS AND SERVICES
Annual Revision for 2003
NOTICE
In this release and the accompanying "U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services:
April 2004," the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
are jointly publishing revised data on U.S. trade in goods for 1992-2003 and the first
three months of 2004 and revised data on services for 1992-2003 and the first three
months of 2004.
Goods
The 2003 not seasonally adjusted Census-basis goods data were revised to eliminate
monthly data that arrived too late for inclusion in the month of transaction but
that were included, initially, in the month in which the data were received. In
addition, corrections were made to previously published data. Once the redistributions
of data to the proper month of transaction and corrections were completed, factors
for seasonal adjustments and trading day adjustments were recomputed and the seasonally
adjusted current-dollar series were revised for 2001-2003 and the first three months
of 2004. Similar changes are made to the chain-weighted dollar series.
Beginning with this release and the "U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services:
April 2004" release, the U.S. Census Bureau and BEA are adjusting various import and
export petroleum and petroleum products series for seasonal variation. The adjustments
begin in 1992. The seasonally adjusted series contribute to a more accurate picture of
seasonally adjusted total imports and total exports. The BEA will carry these
adjustments through to the International Transactions Accounts and the National Income
and Product Accounts.
Services
The services estimates were revised for 1992-2003 and the first three months of 2004.
The revisions resulted from the incorporation of results from BEA's annual and quarterly
surveys and from other newly available and updated source data. Revisions from these
sources have an impact mostly on receipts and payments for other private services for
2002-2003 and the first three months of 2004.
In addition, BEA is introducing a definitional revision in the measure of insurance
services, which is a component of the measure of "other private services." The revisions
are for 1992-2003. The new measure treats the expected investment income on technical
reserves of insurance companies as being paid to policyholders, who then pay it to
insurance companies as a supplement to their premium payments. The change affects
both exports and imports, although the change is much larger for imports than exports.
This revision accounts for most of the revision to estimates of total services imports
and total services exports in each year included in this release.